Question: Guru, how is it possible to have both our inner and outer life synchronised so that we feel we are one person? I often feel like I am two people.

Sri Chinmoy: Well, here we have to know that two things cannot be given equal importance. One thing alone has to be given prime importance and that is the inner life. It is from the inner life that we can enter into the Source. So, if you are really satisfied with your aspiration, meditation and contemplation in your inner life, if you are paying true, sincere attention to your inner life, then you are going towards the Source. Whether or not you have outer success, whether you are able to cure a particular client, student or yourself — that is immaterial. Your business is to enter into your own deepest Source. From there you will get your inspiration. In the outer life, you must not care for success. If you care for success, you are acting like a beggar. That does not mean that you will not work. You will deal with your clients and work with them, but, when you care for success, you know that the forces around you will mock at you.

Now you want to become one man, inside and outside. For that I wish you to pay infinitely more attention to the inner life than to the outer life. In the outer life, the world may call you a failure, but in the inner life you will achieve tremendous success. If you want to compete with others and be judged by others, no matter what you achieve in your outer life, you will always feel that someone is doing better than you. In the field of competition, you will always see somebody above you or below you. But, in your case, you really want to be one integral person. Inside, you have to become successful and, if you are truly successful in your inner life, you are bound to get outer success. And you will see that the outer life is a mere replica of your inner life.